Uncover your hidden hotel costs and make the most of your travel investment

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Managing your traveling workforce’s lodging can be complicated and time-consuming. From researching locations and amenities, negotiating with hotels, managing reservation changes and supporting travelers, to collecting and auditing invoices, it’s easy to lose track of both time and money.

We’ve identified some factors that contribute to direct and indirect hidden costs. Here are three that may be causing you to overpay for workforce lodging:

1. The administrative burden of hotel invoice auditing.

Regular auditing is extremely important, but many companies don’t have the administrative resources to audit their hotel invoices, which can lead to hidden lodging costs. We commonly find hotel invoices errors, and according to the GBTA Foundation, only 6% of company travel managers audit their negotiated hotel contract information monthly, and only 4% perform weekly audits.

When a discrepancy exists, companies that don’t double check expenditures pay 14% more on average than what was originally negotiated, meaning it’s possible for businesses to overpay by thousands of dollars each year.

2. A disorganized booking and reconciliation process.

Companies will often let employees book their own hotels, with direction to book on price, then convenience, but they may not always follow this guidance. Also, when employees arrange travel individually on a personal company card, accounting has to process hundreds of invoices and errors, and other unpredictable costs that come with independent booking. This inefficient process makes planning and budgeting nearly impossible.

Project schedules can be irregular, and it’s hard to predict how many employees will need to travel, how long they will need to travel, and where they are going. These complicated bookings can tax resources, especially because each project requires a new round of hotel negotiations by the in-house lodging team. Most in-house teams don’t have the resources or expertise to get the optimal savings, locations, or flexibility.